Proposals for a Land Bank Money creation and debt ...€¦ · Coin clipping by the end of the 17th century, clipped because in ordinary times the coins could still circulate as full-weight

HAMISH RILEY-SMITH RARE BOOKS Swanton Abbot Hall, Swanton Abbot, Norfolk, England NR10 5DJ

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SPRING CATALOGUE 2015 Political Economy

Rare Scottish Accountancy

1. BUCHANAN,C. The Writing-master and Accountant’s Assistant Containing an extensive System of Practical Arithmetic. With a valuable set of Engravings of Business Writing &c. Designed for the use of Academies and Boarding Schools. Glasgow: Printed for the Author by R.Chapman...1798

Quarto, 26.4 x 21.0cm, original marbled boards, worn, rebacked in calf, pp.(2) + 5-80, engraved title and 23 engraved plates of real business writing and arithmetic by Kirkwood & Son, Edinburgh, some edges worn and frayed, some skilful paper repairs on several leaves unaffecting the text, lightly browned throughout, preserved in a blue cloth box. £2,950 ESTC T111254 [BL and NLS; Boston Atheneum, Bowdoin, Harvard, Massachusetts Hist Soc, Smith College, Yale]. Dunlop, An Accountant’s Book Collection [ICA of Scotland],p.8. Murray, Chapters in the History of Book-keeping and Accountancy, 1930, p.51. Not in ICA, London; not in Herwood. First edition of a very rare work of Scottish book-keeping and accountancy. ‘Colin Buchanan, of the “Academy”, Greenock – a private school of his own – was the author of two works upon book-keeping, and was a famous teacher of his day. He was tall and dignified in deportment, with a kindly, beaming countenance, and was an original thinker.’ Murray.

Proposals for a Land Bank

Money creation and debt management 2. BRISCOE,[John]. An Explanatory Dialogue of a late

Treatise, intituled A Discourse on the late Funds of the Million-Act, Lottery-Act, and Bank of England.With Proposals for Supplying their Majesties with Money on easy Terms, Exempting the Nobility, Gentry, &c. from Taxes, enlarging their yearly Estates, and enriching all the Subjects in the Kingdom. Together with several Speeches to the Honourable the House of Commons, by a Monied Man, a Free-holder, and a Merchant. London 1694

Quarto, 8.25 x 6.5 inches, 18th century speckled calf, rebacked, spine lettered gilt, leaf edges uncut, pp.viii + 36, title within double ruled border, an excellent copy. £3,500 Wing B4749. Kress 1834. Goldsmith 3022. Amex 53. Sraffa 555. Not in Einaudi. Not in the Lauderdale Library. Schumpeter, Economic Analysis, pp.314-325. Palgrave I, p.179. see Antoin Murphy, John Law’s ‘Essay on a Land Bank’, 1994, pp.46-49. see Charlie Landale, Land Bank Proposals 1650-1705[in] The Student Economic Review Vol. XXVI. Scarce first & only edition of an important work by one of the leading projectors of land banks. Briscoe’s project was set out in Discourse on the late funds 1694 and this Explanatory Dialogue 1694 here described.



Charlie Landale writes “The next most prolific of the land bank projectors was John Briscoe. In many respects, his proposal was similar to Chamberlen’s, and appeared around the same time in 1694. The bank was once again based on the future rental income that could be expected from land. Rather than 100 years income, however, Briscoe only used 20. Unsurprisingly, he was accused by Chamberlen of plagiarism (Horsfield, 1960: 180). Despite the fact that Horsfield describes Briscoe’s major contribution, A Discourse of the Late Funds, as “a lengthy and chaotic work” (1960: 181), it contains some modern theory that puts it ahead of any of Chamberlen’s writings. Briscoe believed that the new investment opportunities offered in the forms of the Million Act, the Lottery Act, and most importantly the Bank of England were drawing money out of trade and into the government’s accounts. In his opinion, his bank would allow trade to flourish and give the government the opportunity to borrow at a lower rate than they were able to from the Bank of England. The rate at which the government was borrowing money, he believed, would lead to the “ruin [of] the trade of the kingdom” (Briscoe, 1694: 3). As with Potter and Chamberlen, Briscoe made the link between an increase in the supply of money and greater economic activity. According to him, the new bills would be “to all intents as useful as money; it will be (as it were) an introducing so many fresh-monied men into the Kingdom with several millions more than was before, for the supply of their majesties” (1694: 7). Motivated by finding a means for the government to borrow at a low rate of interest, he was simultaneously concerned with improving the capital of the land owners: “gentlemen will have an opportunity of improving their estates by building, planting, draining or watering their land” (1694: 8). It is not until we get to Nicholas Barbon that the idea of capital is explored in greater detail, but there is an implied understanding of the link between investment and increased productivity here. Briscoe managed to secure over £100,000 in land subscribed to his bank, but it ultimately failed after 1696 as a consequence of a lack of liquidity in much the same way that Chamberlen’s did (1960: 194)” Antoin Murphy notes that “Briscoe’s proposals involved money creation and debt management. Law was to pursue both these policies in France between 1717 and 1720.”

3. COKE,Edward. The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. Or, A Commentarie upon Littleton, not the name of a Lawyer onely, but of the Law it selfe. The second Edition, corrected: with an Alphabeticall Table, thereunto added. London, by the Assignes of Iohn More 1629

Folio, 2 parts in 1 volume, 11.0 x 7.1 ins, contemporary calf, blind ruled, spine with six raised bands, 6 leaves + 395ff; (2) + 34ff including the first blank, with the folding table with skilful repair; both titles within fine engraved borders, two engraved portraits, woodcut chapter headings and woodcut initials throughout, printed marginilia, printed in columns in English and French, contemporary ownership inscription in ink on front blank leaf of Elizabeth Lyshnon, old engraved bookplate of G.Helyar with Helyar arms, an excellent copy. £1,850 Provenance: Helyar Family of Coker Court, East Coker, Somerset. STC 15785, 15788. Sweet & Maxwell, p.286, no.9. Printing & the Mind of Man, 126 [first edition of 1628]. Second edition of Sir Edward Coke’s (1552-1634) great work completing the codification of the Common law. First published in 1628, this revised and corrected edition was published a year



later in 1629. This second edition contains for the first time the engraved portraits of Coke and Littleton, ‘A Table’ with separate title page dated 1629, ‘To the Reader’ and 34 pages of index, which was not published with the first edition. “Ranging over the whole field of law, in comment, report, argument and decision, the Institutes is a disorderly, pedantic, masterful work in which the common thread is a national dogmatism, tenacious of its continuous self-perpetuating life. With it the lawyers fought the battle of the constitution against the Stewarts; historical research was their defence for national liberties. In the Institutes…the tradition of the common law…firmly established itself as the basis of the constitution”. PMM

Book of Rates for Merchants

4. [CUSTOMS & EXCISE]. The Act of Tonnage and Poundage and Book of Rates. ;

with Several Statutes at large relating to the Customs. London, John Bill and

Christopher Barker 1675

Small octavo, contemporary sheep, rebacked, (1) + (11) + 15-325pp; pp.15-22 misbound in

after page 318, title within double ruled border, ownership in ink on front blank of

J.O.Kerslake 1681.

£750

Wing E1147a. Kress 1376. Goldsmith 2126. COPAC, 3 copies at Glasgow,

Liverpool, London University Libraries.

As customs laws increased it became necessary to publish Book of Rates as

guidance both to customs officers and merchants. Tonnage was a duty on

every tun of wine imported; poundage was an ad valorem duty on every

pound’s worth of merchandise imported or exported. The practice had begun

in 1347. After the Restoration of Charles II tonnage and poundage was levied

at whatever rate Parliament considered the exigencies of the time required.

One of the most important texts in political literature

de Tocqueville’s masterpiece of political philosophy

5. DE TOCQUEVILLE,Alexis. De la Democratié en Amérique. Tome Premier,

Tome Second. Paris, Charles Gosselin, 1835

Octavo, contemporary quarter calf mottled paper boards, spine ruled

gilt, four raised bands, contemporary black morocco labels lettered

gilt, marbled endpapers, pp.(4) + xxiv + 367; (4) + 459, folding

engraved map of the United States, hand coloured, with the half titles

in both volumes, some leaves lightly browned as usual, a fine copy.

£8,850

En Francais dans le texte, 253. Downs, Famous Books since 1492.

No.66.

First edition of de Tocqueville’s masterpiece of political philosophy

and one of the most important texts in political literature.

De la Démocratie en Amérique by Alexis de Tocqueville [1809-1859]

was first published in January 1835 in less than 500 copies and in 1840

two concluding volumes were published with the eighth edition.



6. FLEETWOOD,W. A Sermon against Clipping, Preach’d before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, On Decemb.16,1694. London, Tho.Hodgkin 1694

Quarto, old marbled wrappers, paper spine lettered in ink, (2) + 30pp + (3pp) adverts, with half title/imprimatur leaf. £450 Wing 1248. Kress 1843. Goldsmith 3029. Ming-Hsun Li p.57, p.245. First edition. Coin clipping by the end of the 17th century, clipped because in ordinary times the coins could still circulate as full-weight coins if the diminution was not too great, had become very common. It was such a common malpractice that Fleetwood, the Bishop of Ely, preached this sermon warning the people of the great calamities ahead of them in consequence of this scandalous clipping. He said the passing of Clip’d, for Money of just Weight, is, in effect and truth, raising our Money, and making that to go for Thirty Pence, which is indeed but worth Twenty. In 1695 an Act was passed against clipping with heavy penalties for violators but it was ineffective because the public were in sympathy with the violators. By 1695 the scarcity of money, the widespread increase in clipping together with the extent of silver bullion exports had become so critical that it lead to the recoinage debate between John Locke and Lowndes and the eventual recoinage of 1696.

‘Perhaps the most elaborate French treatise on arithmetic published in the 16th century’ 7. FORCADEL,Pierre. L’Arithmeticque de P.Forcadel, de Beziers. En laquelle sont

traictes quatre reigles briefues, qui contiennent les deux cents qurante anciennes: & plusieurs autres reigles, pour l’exercice des nombres entiers, par lesquels on peut facilement paruenir à la cognoissance de l’Agebre. Le tout de l’inuention dudiĉt Forcadel...Le Second Livre...Le Troysiesme Livre...Paris, Chez Guillaume Cauellar, à l’enseigne de la Poulle grasse, deuant le college de Cambray 1557, 1557, 1558

£4,500 Smith, Rare Arithmetica pp.284-286. Adams F744 [Emmanuel Coll]. Renouard, 97-98. Very rare NUC, RLIN and OCLC record copies only at Columbia, Brown & Harvard. Three volumes bound in one volume, quarto, 20.0 x 14.5cm, contemporary blind stamped calf, spine with four raised bands, skilful old repairs to head and tail of spine, ff.[6], 93, [1] errata on recto of final leaf; pp.(6), 310, (1); ff.4, 111, (1), full title page to each volume with printer’s device of a cockrel within an elaborate decorated border, larger printer’s device of a cockrel within an oval border to last leaf of each volume [the final one hand coloured], historiated woodcut initials, many woodcut diagrams and typeset mathematical formulae, *iii and *iv in volume I misbound to the end of volume I, skilful paper repair to lower blank margin to title of volume I, faint dampstain in the lower margin of some leaves, privilege is in volume III dated June 1557, text in Middle French throughout, an excellent copy.



First edition, second state, complete with the very rare third volume [first state is dated 1556, 1556, 1557] Dedicated to Michel de l’Hospital dated 27th February 1555 in volume I , 15th July in volume II and to Cardinal de Lorraine 2nd July 1557 in volume III. Pierre Forcadel of Beziers [died 1574], protégé of Ramus, was professor of mathematics in the Collège Royal, Paris in 1560. He was the first to teach mathematics in the French language. He also wrote on astronomy and translated the works of several Greek mathematicians, notably producing the first French Euclid, published by Cavellat in 1564. Smith describes this work here ‘perhaps the most elaborate French treatise on arithmetic published in the 16th century’. Relying on the recent algebra of Cardano and Stifel’s calculus, Forcadel gives a theoretical account of arithmetical calculations and rules, comparable to Tunstall and Tartaglia. A sophisticated work in the theory of arithmetic, the book is an unusually fine example of 16th century French book design, with complicated equations laid out in fine configurations.

8. GORDON,William. The Universal Accountant, and complete Merchant, new modelled. The sixth edition, with many essential Additions, Alterations, and Improvements. Vol I. II. Dublin, T.Henshall 1796

2 volumes bound on one, octavo, contemporary tree calf, contemporary red morocco label,, spine with gilt rules, a little scuffed, viiipp + 202, (1) + 184pp, 1 folding table, short paper tear to title with no loss, some leaves stained due to paper quality, contemporary ownership in ink on front blank of Francis his Book, Osuabruck; June 22nd 1833, an attractive copy. £1,250 Kress B3136. Not in the Goldsmith Library. Not in Bradshaw, Irish Collection. Not in ICA, Historical Accounting Literature. Not in ICA of Scotland Library. Not in the Herwood Library of Accountancy. See Murray, Chapters in the History of Book-keeping, pp.33-37.ESTC 4 copies only: BL, Nat Lib of Ireland, Harvard, Lib of Congress. Rare first Irish edition. William Gordon (died 1793) was one of the earliest teachers of book-keeping in Glasgow. Together with James Scruton, he carried on the Mercantile Academy in Glasgow from 1763 until at least 1778. The Academy was originally in the Trongate. Gordon carried on after 1778 on his own account teaching figures and accountancy, as well as classics. The Universal Accountant was first published in 1763-65 and ran to five editions to 1787 before this Dublin printing. All editions appear to be very rare. The first volume covers the elements of arithmetic and the application of arithmetic to the business of the merchant, the banker, custom-house, insurance offices, &c. The second volume begins with a Dissertation on the Business of the counting-house and then the book is divided into two parts, part I The elements of Mercantile Accountantship and part II Mercantile accountantship reduced to practice, in various specimens of books, connected and digested as in real trade. Gordon was also the author of The General Counting-House 1766



A critic of John Locke in the recoinage debate 9. [HODGES,James]. The Present State of England, as to Coin

and Publick Charges. In Three Parts. Treating of the Necessity of more Money before Taxes can be effectual, Trade revived, and of Ways and Means to procure it: as Calling in all the Plate on ready Money; Restoring Credit; Bringing out Hoarded Money; Rectifying the Value of Money, against which the opposite Prejudices, as injurious to King, Parliament and People, with Mr Lock’s chief Positions, are refuted by demonstrable and Matter of Fact. By J.H. London, Andr.Bell 1697

Octavo, three parts on one volume, contemporary panelled calf, rebacked, red morocco label, xxviiipp + 340pp, with errata printed on p.xv, title within double ruled border, contemporary ownership in ink on the front blank leaf of Tho.Day . £1,250 Kress 2029. Goldsmith 3427. Wing H2299. Ming-Hsun Li, p.245. Schumpeter, p.357. See Ming-Hsun Li, The Great Recoinage of 1696-9. London 1963 for a detailed examination of the contemporary debate. First edition. One of the books published during the debate on the recoinage of the English currency at the end of the 17th century in which Locke played such an important part in rejecting devaluation. John Locke’s contention that the old standard should be maintained was chiefly based upon his ‘commodity theory’ of money – he regarded money as representing nothing but a quantity of silver. Hodges disagrees with Locke and argues for the raising of the value of money, together with calling in all the ‘plate of the kingdom’ to be melted down for coin. Schumpeter identifies that in this book Hodges explicitly recognises the fact that a policy aiming at persistent export surpluses must defeat itself through the rise in domestic prices that it would eventually produce. Hodges published a supplement to this work in 1698.

The foundation of classical monetary economics 10. HUME,David. Political Discourses. Edinburgh, R.Fleming, For

A.Kincaid and A.Donaldson 1752 Octavo, 17.3 x 10.8 cm, contemporary calf, covers with double gilt rule, rebacked spine gilt with five raised bands, red morocco label, (2) + 304pp, printed errata on verso of contents leaf, unidentified ownership inscription in ink on front blank dated 1804 Edinb Decb10, title stained with paper repair to upper blank corner, faint library stamp of Ayr Mechanic Institution on the title, p.1 and final leaf, and Ayr Public Library on the title, book label of Ayr Mechanics’ Institution Library printed within a decorative border. £3,500 Kress 5210. Goldsmith 8689. Jessop, p.23. New Palgrave, II, 695. Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, pp.96-98. O’Brien, The Classical Economists, p.7ff. For Ayr Mechanics’ Institution: see Glasgow Mechanics Magazine & Annals of Philosophy,1826 vol. 4, p.377. Provenance. Ayr Mechanics’ Institution was founded in 1825, [the first Mechanics’s Insitiution had been founded in Edinburgh in 1821] and by 1837 had a large and excellent library with more than 2000 volumes. The library was incorporated into Ayr public library and became part of the Carnegie Library, Ayr which was opened in 1893.



First edition of David Hume’s principal contributions to political economy and a work closely studied and lectured upon by Adam Smith. Of the twelve discourses, seven are on economics. It ranks as one of the major economic writings of the eighteenth century. Hume’s specific contributions to economic thought include the so-called ‘specie-flow mechanism’ and the ‘theory of creeping inflation’. O’Brien describes his two essays Of money and Of the balance of trade as forming ‘nothing less than the foundation of classical monetary economics’.

The Father of the Scottish Enlightenment 11. HUTCHESON,Francis. A Short Introduction to Moral

Philosophy, in three books; containing the Elements of Ethicks and the Law of Nature. Glasgow, Robert Foulis 1747

Thick octavo, contemporary calf, upper hinge cracked but holding, top of spine chipped, (2) + ivpp + (6) + 347pp, contemporary ownership in ink on front blank leaf of B.Drayton. £1,150 Gaskell, The Foulis Press no.45. Thomas Miller, Francis Hutcheson and the Civic Humanist Tradition, in Hook & Sher (ed) The Glasgow Enlightenment pp.40-55. Jessop, Scottish Enlightenment, p.145. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, p.128. Graham, Scottish Men of Letters in the 18th Century, Hutcheson pp.31-34. First edition in English, first published in Latin in 1745, was a classroom text for students and a work of extreme importance in Adam Smith’s intellectual development. Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), who could be described as the Father of the Scottish Enlightenment, was professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow University from 1727 and Adam Smith’s tutor, of whom Adam Smith called “the never-to-be-forgotten Hutcheson”. Hutcheson was one of the earliest propounders of what is known as the utilitarian doctrine of ethics and his teaching in this may be regarded as the foundation in the corresponding theory of economics, whose supporters included Smith, Bentham, James Mill and to a modified degree John Stuart Mill. Of Hutcheson’s influence on Adam Smith, “Dugald Stewart seems to have heard Smith admit that it was Hutcheson in his lectures that suggested to him that particular theory of the right of property which he used to teach in his own unpublished lectures on jurisprudence, and which founded the right of property on the general sympathy of mankind with the reasonable expectation of the occupant to enjoy unmolested the object which he had acquired or discovered”. Rae, Life of Adam Smith. “Hutcheson was a practical moralist in the Ciceronian tradition, a teacher of virtue who sought to persuade his students at Glasgow University and his reading public, not just to understand the good life but to live it”. Miller.



12. IMHOOFF,Jean Jaques. L’Art de Tenir les Livres en Parties Doubles ou La Science de Faire Ecriture de toutes les Negociations que se sont, soit en Banque, soit en Merchandises, ouvrage divise en deux parties...Vevey, chez l’auteur 1786

Quarto, two parts, contemporary calf, scuffed and rubbed, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt with contemporary red morocco label lettered gilt, marbled endpapers, 250 leaves; pp.viii + 99 + (2) errata + (2) + 35 + (48) + (2) + 25 + (36) + (2) + 18 + (8) + 12 + (30) + (6) + 22 + (8) + (8) + (2) + 14 + (32); (2) + 66 [misbound], printers woodcut to title, signed by the author in ink at the end of the preface, a very good copy. £3,000 Reymondin, Bibliographie Methodique...sur les science des comptes, pp.70-71. Historical Accounting Literature,[ICA] p.160. An accountants book collection, [ICA Scotland] p.26. Herwood, 504. FIRST EDITION of this tour de force by Imhooff, published by the author in the town of Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva, now renowned, as in 1867 pharmacist Henri Nestlé invented baby milk powder and is the home of the company.

Justinian’s Codification of Roman Law “the most notable and enduring achievement of the age”

13. JUSTINIAN I. Codex Justinianus [with the Glossa ordinaria of Accursius and the Summaria of Hieronymous Clarius] Venice, Bernardinus Stagninus de Tridino 16 Sept 1495

Folio, 15.5 x 10.3 inches, 16th century blind stamped alum-yawed pigskin with the clasps, skilful repairs to hinges and top of spine, leaf edges blue, 318ff, printed in two columns within two columns of glosses, 72 to 82 lines, printed in black and red, discreet library stamp on first leaf, a few contemporary annotations in ink the margins on ff.37, 41, 42, 58, 182, 184, 185, 198, 199, early ownership in brown ink on first blank of Schwarz,, a fresh copy. £9,500 USA Univ of Illinois only [Goff J585]. UK no copy. GW 7743 Hain 9618, BSB-Ink C573 see Printing & the Mind of Man no.4. Not in the BL but see BL, XVth century books, V, p.xxx, p.363 for the printer. Incunable printing of Emperor Justinian’s Codex. The Codex Justinianus [first printed in Mainz 1475] was the first of four parts of what became known as the Corpus Juris Civilis, a collection of fundamental works on Roman law that was issued from 529 to 534 AD by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor. It has been called “the most notable and enduring achievement of the age”, in which “the old (Roman) imperium displayed its full powers” (George Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State). The codex was a compilation in Latin of the existing imperial constitutiones (imperial pronouncements having the force of law), back to the time of Emperor Hadrian in the second century. Although the other parts, the Digest [Rome 1476] and the Institutes [Mainz 1468] and the Novellae [Mainz 1477], were arguably more original, containing an important anthology of jurisprudence, a

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Juris_Civilis

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Justinian_I



handbook for teaching and a list of the most recent decrees, everything rested on the laws contained in the Codex; indeed at the time of the publication of its first version all imperial laws not included were repealed. The collections of Justinian provided the basis for law thereafter in the eastern Roman [Byzantine] empire. They were rediscovered in the West in the late eleventh century. Because the emphases in the Codex were both Christian and Imperial, it provided source material for church lawyers, in the greatest period of the development of canon law, and for civil lawyers, at a time when the Holy Roman Emperors were keen to develop their authority. It appealed, therefore, to a wide range of lawyers, the most famous on the civil side being Accursius [c.1182-c.1260], a professor at Bologna, the greatest law university of the middle ages, and a leading jurist. “For the next 500 years the Glossa [or annotations] of Accursius remained an indispensable complement to the texts of Roman law. His work made Roman law a popular course of study during the Renaissance period. Accursius’s interpretations of Roman law also influenced the development of later European legal codes, among them the Code Napoléon, or French Civil Code, enacted in the early 19th century.” Encycl Britannica. The printer was Bernardinus Stagninus, de Tridino, [died 1537]. The earliest authenticated book from his press is Rhazes Liber...ad Almansorem 1483. Although the BL does not have a copy of this 1495 printing of the Codex, they have a printing by the same printer of Justinian’s Digestum with commentary by Accursius. “His output was so irregular...that it is evident he was...primarily a bookseller rather than a printer”. In recent years complete copies of incunable printings of Justinian’s Codex have been very infrequently for sale in commerce.

John Locke’s monetary theory 14. [LOCKE, John]. Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of

Interest and Raising the Value of Money. In a Letter to a Member of Parliament. London, Awnsham & John Churchill 1692 Small octavo, 16.0 x 9.6 cm contemporary mottled calf, worn, covers with blind rule, rebacked, red morocco label lettered gilt, pp(2) + 4pp + 192 + (2), title within double ruled border, complete with the licence leaf and the printed errata, errata corrected throughout in ink in a contemporary hand, engraved armorial bookplate of Stephen Martin Leake. £9,500 Provenance: Stephen Martin Leake [1702-1773] herald and numismatist, author of Nummi Britannica historia: An historical account of English money. 1726 Wing L2760. Kress 1792. Goldsmith 2491. Attig, Works of John Locke 494. Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, pp.132-134. Erich Roll, History of Economic Thought, pp.114-118 First edition of John Locke’s first book on economics - Locke’s most important contribution to mercantile and monetary theory. It was an attempt to influence Parliament to defeat a bill to lower the legal rate of interest from 6% to 4% - it was fixed by law at 5% on January 23rd 1692. “Locke followed William Petty closely in deriving his theory of interest from an analysis of rent. He still regarded rent as the only surplus, and inquired how money, which was by nature barren, could have the same productive character as the soil, which did produce something useful. His conclusion was that just as the unequal distribution of land enabled those who had more than they could cultivate themselves to take a tenant from whom they obtained rent, so the unequal distribution of money enabled its owners to obtain a tenant for it from whom they could receive



interest” Erich Roll p.115 “It was, however, Locke’s emphasis on the medium of exchange function of money which was the starting-point for his further discussion. This was based on the quantity theory of money…Against the prevailing mercantilist view that a low rate of interest would raise prices, Locke pointed out that prices were determined by the amount of money in circulation. This view was based on a supply and demand theory of price…Locke, in spite of occasional inconsistencies, held the view that changes in the amount of money were bound to affect prices”. Erich Roll, p.117 The book was published anonymously: “This pre-occupation with anonymity, this inability to be open with the world, his friends or even himself about what he had written and why he had written it, is a trait of Locke’s” Peter Laslett, The Library of John Locke.

15. LOCKE,John. A Treatise of Raising our Coin, Taken out of a Book written by Mr J.Lock, entituled Some Considerations of the Consequences of Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money. Printed in the Second Volume of his Works, in Folio. London, William Churchill 1718

Octavo, quarter morocco and marbled boards, morocco label, 47pp, early ownership in ink on the title of J.Blumer. £450 Kress, 3075. Goldsmith, 5485. Christophersen,p.23. A reprint of the second part of John Locke’s great treatise on mercantile and monetary theory first published in 1692.

Longfield’s remarkable lectures – a ‘neglected British Economist’ 16. LONGFIELD,Mountifort. Lectures on Political Economy, delivered in Trinity and

Michaelmas Terms, 1833. Dublin, William Curry, Jun, and Company 1834 Octavo, contemporary cloth backed boards with loss of original paper to boards, printed paper label rubbed, pp.xii, 267, without the half title, a good copy. £2,350 Blaug: Great Economists before Keynes, pp.135-137. Seligman: On some neglected British Economists, 1903, pp.46-52. Schumpeter: History of Economic Analysis, pp.464-465. See L.S.Moss: Mountifort Longfield: Irelands first Professor of Poltical Economy, 1976. Kress C3771. Goldsmith 28434. Not in Bradshaw Collection of Irish Books, Cambridge University Library. First edition by Samuel Mountifort Longfield, who was Ireland’s first Professor of the Whateley Chair of Political Economy at Trinity College, Dublin. “Longfield’s general theory of value is noteworthy in that he not only puts very lucidly the influence of cost of production upon the supply side of the equation between supply and demand, but calls attention to the demand side as well...Longfield uses profits in the sense of general returns to capital, and that his theory of profits is really a theory of interest...In his theory of wages also he marks a decided advance...’the wages of the labourer depend upon the value of his labour, and not upon his wants, whether natural or acquired.’” Seligman “Longfield’s Lectures is an amazingly original if somewhat confusingly written book, which sketches a subjective theory of value and a marginal productivity theory – all this in 1834, 11 years after the death of Ricardo. Longfield had the idea of marginal demand price and favoured utility rather than labour as the basis of exchange value but he failed, like everyone before him, to



discover the concept of marginal utility as the link between utility and demand.” Blaug “Longfield’s merits may be summed up by saying he overhauled the whole of economic theory and produced a system that would have stood up well in 1890....his argument against the labour theory of value is one of the best ever penned...he anticipated the essentials of Bohm-Bawerk’s theory (by making the ‘roundabout’ process of production the pivot of his analysis of capital). And he presented a reasonably complete and reasonably correct theory of distribution based upon the marginal productivity principle, not only the marginal cost principle...” Schumpeter.

17. [LOWNDES,William]. A Report containing an Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins. London, Charles Bill 1695

Octavo, contemporary speckled calf, rebacked, (1) + 3-159pp + (1p), title with engraved arms printed within double ruled border, woodcut initials, an excellent copy. Wing, 3323. Kress, 1908. Goldsmith, 3131. Ming-Hsun Li, p.246. see Ming-Hsun Li, The Great Recoinage of 1696-9, chapter 6 pp.95-108, The Controversy between Lowndes and Locke £400 First edition. Lowndes was made Secretary to the Treasury on April 24th 1695 and published this famous report on September 12th 1695. Lowndes found historical justification for devaluation, but if it was not for the strong opposition from John Locke and others, his proposal for devaluation might have been adopted by Parliament. Locke’s contention that the old standard should be maintained was chiefly based upon his ‘commodity theory’ of money.

18. [LOWNDES,William]. Some Remarks on a Report containing an Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins, made to the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesties Treasury, by Mr William Lowndes, Secretary to the said Lords Commissioners. London, W.Whitlock 1695

Quarto, quarter calf and marbled boards, (1) + 24pp + (1p) advertisement, title within double ruled border, an excellent copy. £250 Wing, 4598. Kress, 1909. Goldsmith, 3169 (Locke’s copy). Ming-Hsun Li, p.248. First edition. The anonymous author disagrees with Lowndes’ proposals and refutes them paragraph by paragraph.



19. MALTHUS,Thomas Robert. Autograph letter signed to Nassau William Senior. St Leonards December 7th 1830

Octavo, 11.3 x 18.7 cm, 3 pages + integral address leaf, preserved in a cloth box. £4,500 Unpublished letter from Malthus from St Leonards, where he was convalescing, to the economist Nassau William Senior (1790-1864) confirming receipt of Senior’s pamphlet, Malthus’s delight with the preface “you have taken quite a correct view of the subject and placed it in the most striking light”; that he has written to John Wishaw praising the preface. Malthus adds that “I do not think I saw the Lectures before. They are very good but some points are a little doubtful, and on one in particular which is a very important one I cannot agree with you”.

20. MALTHUS,Thomas Robert. Autograph letter signed to Nassau William Senior. St Leonards January (11th) 1831

Quarto, 18.7 x 22.7 cm, 2 pages + integral address leaf, preserved in a cloth box. £4,500 Unpublished letter from Malthus from St Leonards, where he was convalescing, to the economist Nassau William Senior (1790-1864) approving of Senior’s emigration plan which he published in 1831 anonymously – “I quite approve of your emigration plan, and see no objection to the draft of the bill which seems to propose adequate means to accomplish the desireable end”. Malthus refers to an upcoming visit to town with Mrs Malthus and a stay with his friend William Otter.

Original printed paper covers, uncut and unopened 21. MALTHUS, T.R. Essai sur le Principe de

Population…3me edition française, trés-augmentée. Genève, Abraham Cherbuliez 1830

4 volumes, octavo, original printed paper covers, entirely uncut and unopened, xxixpp + 434pp; (2) + 420pp; (2) + 384pp; (2) + 381pp, spines darkened, some wear to extremities, an excellent copy. £1,150 Not in Kress or Goldsmith Third edition in French translated from the fifth English edition of 1817 by Pierre Prevost and his son G.Prevost. Previous French editions were published in 1809 and 1823.



Eonomist John Law’s System – the best contemporary record and history The Mississippi Project’s Birth, Bubble and Collapse

22. [MARMONT DU HAUTCHAMP, Barthélémy] Histoire des Finances Sous la Minorité de Louis XV. Pendant les années 1719 & 1720. Précedée D’un Abrégé de la Vie du Duc Regent, & du sur Sr.Law. Tome Premier – Tome Sixieme. La Haye, chez Pierre du Hondt 1739

Twelvemo, 6 volumes bound in 3 volumes, 16.2 x 9.3cm, small octavo, very fine contemporary continental mottled calf, spines richly gilt with fleur-de-lys, red and blue morocco labels lettered gilt, marbled endpapers, leaf edges marbled, original silk page markers, pp. LIV-204 + (2) blank; (2) + 312 + (2) blank; (2) + 208 + (2) blank; (2) + 286 + (4) blank; (14) + 294 + (4) blank; (18) + 246 + (2) blank, complete with 2 folding tables in volume VI of Billets de Banque...faits en consequence des Arréts...1719-1720 printed on both sides, and the engraved plate Admiré la force in volume IV, titles printed in red and black with printers woodcut devices, woodcut decoration to chapter openings and endings, woodcut initials, insignificant scuffing to back board of first volume, a very fine copy. £9,500 Kress 4447. Goldsmith 7712 Einaudi 3728. INED 1553. on John Law see Schumpeter, Economic Analysis, pp.294-295; Antoin Murphy, John Law’s ‘Essay on a Land Bank’ 1994. H.M.Hyde, The Life of John Law 1948, First and only edition - the best contemporary source on the financial activities of John Law and the Banque Générale, Banque royale and the Compagnie des Indes. Schumpeter on John Law ‘He worked out the economics of his projects with a brilliance and, yes, profundity, which places him in the front rank of monetary theorists of all time’. Schumpeter, Economic Analysis: pp.294-295 and Antoin Murphy writes on Law “an outstanding monetary theorist with a vision of the monetary system more akin to the modern economist” Marmont du Hautchamp (c.1682–c.1760), French economist and economic historian was born in Orléans, was fermier des domaines of Flanders. Marmont du Hautchamp had been an admirer of John Law's system and his book has been recognized as the best contemporary history of the system. The book provides a record of the activities and operations of John Law from the foundation in 1716 of the Banque Générale, soon afterwards renamed Banque Royale, to the formation of Compagnie des Indes which, by absorbing various other chartered companies, acquired the monopoly on the trade to America, Africa and China. The company obtained the monopoly of tobacco, the control of the mint, the payment of the national debt, and the farm of the taxes. Within a few years Law's companies thus got almost complete control over France's overseas trade, its currency and public finances. “Law was transforming the Mississippi Company into a trading-cum-financial company and controlling the State’s finances, most notably tax collection and debt management” Antoin Murphy. In 1720 Law was appointed Controller-General of Finances for the Kingdom of France. Here printed in full between May 1716 to January 1721in volumes V-VI are the one hundred and twenty-two Memoires, Lettres Patentes, Edits, Declarations, Arrets & ‘autres Piéces des Opérations sur lesquelles le fond de l’Histoire du Systeme des Finance’ –– including May 2nd 1716 Lettres Patentes authorising the incorporation of John Law’s Banque Générale;



April 10th 1717 arret ordering that notes should be accepted in payment of all taxes and other other royal revenues; September 6th 1717 Lettres Patentes establishing the Compagnie d’Occident granting monopoly of trade with Louisaiana and the absolute control of the internal affairs of the colony for 25 years – the birth of the Mississippi project; December 4th 1718 Declaration du Roi converting the Banque Générale into the Banque Royale as from January 1st 1719 becoming a government concern administered in the name and under the authority of Louis XV – in effect the nationalisation of the bank; of June 17th 1719 authorising the issue of 50,000 shares of the par value of 500 livres in the Compagnie des Indes Orientale & des Chines for public subscription at a premium of 10%; June 20th 1719 arret provided that for every single share in the new company intending purchaser must possess four in the old – popularly known as the ‘mothers’ and ‘daughters’ shares leading to an immediate run on the old shares; the notorious arret of February 27th 1720, which was rigorously enforced, forbidding any person keeping gold or silver above a value of 500 livres; March 5th 1720 arret in which the government undertook to pay 9000 livres in banknotes for each share – which led to the Systeme’s ruin. The bubble burst in 1720, cash payments were suspended and Law fled from the country, leaving behind many of his former supporters ruined.

An Elizabethan merchant’s arithmetic 23. MASTERSON,Thomas. His First Booke of Arithmeticke. Shewing the ingenious

inuentions, and figuratiue operations, by which to calculate the true solution or answeres of Arithmeticall questions: after a more perfect, plaine, briefe, well ordered Arithmeticall way, than any other heretofore published: verie necessarie for all men. [with] His Second Booke of Arithmeticke. [with] His Addition to his First Booke of Arithmeticke. [with] His Third Booke of Arithmeticke. London, Richard Field 1592, 1592, 1594, 1595

Quarto, four parts in one volume, contemporary calf, 18.0 x 13.2 cm, blind ruled, rubbed and worn, spine with four raised bands, (2) + 21pp; (3) + 43pp + 36-95pp + 94-141pp + (1p) errata; (6) + 108pp; (3) + 68pp, without the first blank and A3 in the First Booke, without the title to the Third Booke, titles with woodcut coat of arms, woodcut initials and devices to chapter endings, mathematical diagrams and tables, some light browning and old water staining, some early ink ownership annotations on the front blanks and on the blank recto of the title to the Addition, some ink annotations in a few margins and especially in the First Booke pp.4,6, 7,8. £6,750 Provenance: Ffrancis Pearce [see pp.57,58 3rd Book]; Walter Thompson of St Martin’s Le Grand within Allowsgate; James Thompson died 1684; Francis Thompson; Ffrancis Thompson 1673 Rector of St Matthews, Ffrgday Street, & St Peter’s Cheap, London; [recto of title Addition to First Booke] Mr Sutton, St Mary Overy 1673 [front blank] Rare. STC, 17648, 17648.3, 17648.7. Smith, Rara Arithmetica, pp.400-403. First edition of this rare Elizabethan merchant’s arithmetic and text-book. Thomas Masterson was an English mathematician of the latter part of the 16th century, of whom little is known. The First Book is dedicated to Robert Devreux, Earl of Essex [1566-1601], the last of Queen Elizabeth’s favourites and friend of Francis and Anthony Bacon, intrigued with James VI of



Scotland to support a rising against the Queen with Shakespeare’s patron the Earl of Southampton as an accomplice. He was seized, sent to the tower and beheaded. The Second Book is dedicated to Sir William Webbe, Lord Mayor of London [in 1591] and the Third Book to Sir John Puckering, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and formerly Speaker of the House of Commons. In the dedication to the first book Masterson writes I have vndertaken to write and publish sixe bookes of the Arte of Aithmeticke, of which only three and the additions ever came to print. The short First Book covers numeration, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions with examples. The long Second Booke is a collection of practical problems representing the mercantile activities of London at the end of the 16th century. The author describes this Second Book on the title as profitable to those which are giuen to marchants, then to others and in ‘To the Reader’ Masterson states I have placed needful questions, applied to paying, receiuing, buying, selling, bartering, mixtions, exchanges, companies, interests, &c, with the artificiall order of working, to find the things in them required… Masterson explains in ‘To the Reader’ in the Addition to the First Book that I have made this addition unto my said first booke, containing not only a plaine exposition of the same from point to point, but also a large declaration how the questions propounded in my aforesaid second booke, may be answered by the said first booke many different wayes, comprehending therein in a\manner, how all the notable briefe operations are wrought in my said first and second bookes: all after so plaine and easie method, that thou shalt need no other teacher to understand the same. In the Third Book Masterson states thou hast the definitions with their declarations, and the instructions with their examples, that are expedient and needful to be ha and perfectly knowen, for the further attaining to the true vnderstanding of this Art. The few similar earlier writers in English in the 16th century and their books were Robert Recorde’s The Ground of Artes 1542, The Castle of Knowledge 1551, The Whetstone of Witte 1557; Humphrey Baker’s The Well Spring of Sciences 1562, Leonard and Thomas Digges’s Pantometria 1571, Stratioticos 1572, Dionis Gray’s The store-house of Breuitie in woorkes of Arithmeticke 1577 and Thomas Hylles’s The Arte of vulgar arithmeticke 1592.

Commerce and Accountancy in Hanau in the 18th century 24. MEYER, Johann Rudolf de. Theoretische Einleitung in die praktiche Wechsel-und

Waarenhandlung, worrin, durch eine historiche Beschreibung der Usprung, Anfang, und Fortgang der Handlung, sodann derjenige der Munzen, des Wechels und der Wechselbriefe,....Und endlich eine Anleitung zur doppelten Buchhaltung, durch deren allgemeinesser Grundsatze nach der kurzest-und leichtesten Lehrart vorgetragen...Hanau, Verfassers 1782

Quarto, contemporary quarter calf and marbled boards, worn at edges, contemporary morocco label lettered gilt, spine with five raised bands, pp.(8) + 496 + (8) index and errata, engraved frontispiece by Műller of an accountant at his desk with a view from his window of a merchant ship leaving port, a few prinres woodcut devices at chapter endings, a good copy. £2,650 Hausdorfer, p.168. Historical Accounting Literature p.29. Not in the Herwood Library. First edition of this rare book published in the town of Hanau, east of Frankfurt, famous for being the birthplace of the Grimm brothers. In 1597 Calvinist refugees from the Spanish Netherlands and France founded the Neustadt (New city) in Hanau. The



refugees brought an enormous amount of capital and know how to the town. Goldsmiths, weavers and other craftsmen settled in the flourishing Neustadt. This book is a practical guide for the merchant, an account of the development of trade and manufacture, details of currency exchange and European trading centres together with a long section from pp.445-496 on book-keeping and an exposition of the double-entry method.

25. MILL, JAMES. The History of British India. London, Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1817.

Three volumes, quarto, contemporary quarter calf and marbled boards, spines skilfully restored with gilt raised bands, armorial device at base, labels lettered gilt, marbled endpapers, leaf edges marbled, pp. xxxii, 648; viii, 720; viii, 777, [1, blank]; with a folding engraved map in volumes I & II, the second one hand coloured.. £1,500 First edition. .James Mill was the first British historian to give a comprehensive treatment to Indian history as a whole. “If the whole of his time for 12 years was not literally devoted to the task, it was, we may say, substantially devoted; for his diversions consisted in mostly discussing topics allied to the problems the History had to deal with...The best ideas of the sociological writers of the 18th century were combined with the Bentham philosophy of law, and the author’s own independent reflections, to make a dissertation of startling novelty to the generation that first perused it” Bain, James Mill pp.176-177. “Dry and stern as its author, and embodying some of his political prejudices, it was at least a solid piece of work, which succeeded at once, and soon became the standard book on the subject”. Leslie Stephen, The Utilitarians, vol II,p.23. ‘About the end of 1806 [Mill] began … the composition of a history of India, and the task was far more laborious than he had anticipated. Three years spread into ten … The “History” succeeded at once, and has become a standard work … The book, though dry and severe in tone, supplied a want, and contained many interesting reflections upon social questions. He has been accused of unfairness, and his prejudices were undoubtedly strong’ (Leslie Stephen in DNB). ‘Of India I have undertaken to give no less than a complete history, in which I aim at comprising all the information in which we Europeans are very materially interested; and, thank God, after having had it nearly ten years upon the carpet, I am now revising it for the press, and hope to begin to print as soon as I return to London. It will make three 4to volumes, which, whatever else they may contain, will contain the fruits of a quantity of labour, of which nobody who shall not go over the same ground, and go over it without the assistance of my book, can form an adequate conception. Had I forseen that it would be one half or one third of what it has been, never should I have been the author of a History of India.’ (James Mill, in a letter written to Napier, cited in Bain, p. 158). The work led to James Mill’s appointment, in 1819, to a place in the India House as Assistant to the Examiner of India Correspondence.



26. MILL.John Stuart. La Libertè. Traduit et augmentè d’une introduction par M.Dupont-White. Paris, Guillaumin et Cie 1860

Octavo, original publishers printed paper covers, uncut, pp.(6), xc, 211, (1). £120 First edition in French translated by Charles Dupont-White [1807-1878], French economist, translator of not only Liberty but also Representative Government, and correspondent with Mill over many years. “None of my writings have been either so carefully composed, or so sedulously corrected as this….The Liberty was more directly our [Harriet Mill and JSM] joint production than anything else which bears my name…” J.S.Mill Autobiography

Defence of the East India Company

27. [MILL,John Stuart] Practical Observations on the First Two of the Proposed

Resolutions on the Government of India. London, William Penny 1858

Octavo, pp.10, disbound.

£500

MacMinn p.91. Very rare, 1 copy only in NUCLS at Newberry Library, Chicago. Copac: 1

copy only LSE.

First edition. “An exposition of the fact that the government of India

has always been controlled by Parliament, that the East India

Company has had charge of administration only, and that such a

system provides better government for India than is provided by the

proposed resolutions”. MacMinn

“In 1856 I was promoted to the rank of chief of the office in which I

had served for upwards of 33 years. The appointment, that of

Examiner of India Correspondence, was the highest, next to that of

Secretary, in the East India Company’s home service, involving the

general superintendence of all the correspondence with the Indian

Governments, except the military, naval, and financial. I held this

office as long as it continued to exist, being a little more than two

years; after which it pleased Parliament, in other words Lord

Palmerston, to put an end to the East India Company as a branch of the Government of India

under the Crown, and convert the administration of that country into a thing to be scrambled

for by the second and third class of English parliamentary politicians. I was the chief manager

of the resistance which the Company made to their own political extinction, and to the letters

and petitions I wrote for them...” J.S.Mill, An Autobiography, pp.248-250.



The doctrine of the Separation of Powers

The universal criterion of Constitutional Government

28. MONTESQUIEU,Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de. De l’Esprit des Loix.

Ou du rapport que les Loix doivent avoir avec la Constitution de chaque

Gouvernement, les Moeurs, le Climat, la Religion, Le Commerce, &c. à quoi

l’Auteur a ajouté Des recherches nouvelles sur les Loix Romaines touchant les

Successions, sur les Loix Françoises, & sur les Loix Féodales. Tome Premier

[Tome Seconde] Geneve, chez Barrillot & Fils [1748]

2 volumes, quarto, 24.0 x 19.0 cm, very fine contemporary quarter pale continental calf richly

gilt and marbled boards, contemporary pale morocco labels lettered gilt, pp.(8), xxiv, 522;

(4), xvi, 564, with the half titles to both volumes, printers woodcut to titles, with the cancels

E3, F3, F4, Aa, Ff2, Kk2, Sss4 in volume I and a, Hhh in volume II, contemporary ownership

in ink on front blanks W.E.Suedelius, an exceptionally fine copy of the true first edition.

£35,000

Printing & the Mind of Man 197. En Français dans le Texte 138. Kress 4920. Goldsmiths

8375. Tchemerzine,VIII,459 (a). See Volpilhac-Auger, G.Sabbagh & Weil: Un auteur en

quête d’êditeurs? Histoire éditoriale de l’oeuvre de Montesquieu. 2011, pp.47-67, 413-416.

First edition of Montesquieu’s [1689-1755] great L’esprit des loix in which he argued that

the best government would be one in which power was balanced among

three groups of officials. He thought England - which divided power between

the king (who enforced laws), Parliament (which made laws), and the judges

of the English courts (who interpreted laws) - was a good model of this.

Montesquieu called the idea of dividing government power into three

branches the "separation of powers." He thought it most important to create

separate branches of government with equal but different powers. That way,

the government would avoid placing too much power with one individual or

group of individuals. He wrote, "When the [law making] and [law

enforcement] powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty."

According to Montesquieu, each branch of government could limit the power

of the other two branches. Therefore, no branch of the government could

threaten the freedom of the people. His ideas about separation of powers

became the basis for the United States Constitution.

John Maynard Keynes in the manuscript preface to his French edition of The General Theory

described Montesquieu as the greatest French economist : “Montesquieu was the real French

equivalent of Adam Smith. The greatest of your economists, head and shoulders above the

Physiocrats in penetration, clear-headedness and good sense”.



29. MORE, Sir Thomas. Utopia: written in Latin by Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England. Translated into English by Gilbert Burnet, late Bishop of Sarum. To this edition is added, a short account of Sir Thomas More’s life and his trial. Dublin, R.Reilly, for G.Risk, G.Ewing, and W.Smith 1737

Small octavo, contemporary pale calf, double rule to covers, red morocco label lettered gilt, crest gilt on spine, five raised bands, pp.xxviii, 140, two leaves misbound, engraved armorial bookplate of the Earls of Drogheda, a fine copy. £1,450 See Printing & the Mind of Man, 47 [first edition Louvain 1516]. Not in Bradshaw Collection of Irish Books, Cambridge University Library. First Dublin printing of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. Thomas More’s Utopia is a work of satire, indirectly criticizing Europe's political corruption and religious hypocrisy. In Utopia the Utopians have eliminated wealth, the nobility, private property, and currency. Labour and goods are distributed equally. Property is held in common. Everyone works the same hours and even though the rulers are exempt from public labour, they work to set a good example for the others. Work hours are equally distributed and there are no monasteries, convents, alehouses, or academies wherein an individual might withdraw from the rest of society. All Utopians are socially productive. It was to have a lasting impact on subsequent political thought and literature. It has inspired a diverse group of political thinkers from Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarians to Karl Marx and communism. Utopia was first published in Louvain in 1516 in latin; it was translated into English by Raphe Robinson and first published in English in 1551. A more commonly known English translation of the text is that of Gilbert Burnet, produced in 1684 and reprinted here in this first Dublin printing. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, said of Robinson's translation: 'It was once translated into English not long after it was written; and I was once apt to think it might have been done by Sir Thomas More himself: For as it is in the English of his Age, and not unlike his Style; so the Translator has taken a Liberty that seems too great for any but the Author himself, who is Master of his own Book, and so may leave out or alter his Original as he pleases; Which is more than a Translator ought to do, I am sure it is more than I have presumed to do.'

30. PESTALOZZI, Johann Heinrich. Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrt, ein Versuch den Muttern Anleitung zu geben, ihre Kinder selbst zu unterrichten. Bern & Zurich, Heinrich Gessner 1801

Octavo, contemporary half calf and marbled boards, black morocco label, engraved portrait of Pestalozzi + (1) + 390pp, an excellent copy. £5,250 Printing and the Mind of Man, no.258. First edition containing an exhaustive exposition of Pestalozzi’s principles of education and the book on which Pestalozzi’s fame rests. “How Gertrude teaches her children” proclaimed something entirely new in the field of popular education – the principle of self-activity in acquiring and using knowledge in its first stages. The most important and forward-looking of his ideas, which he stressed continually in practice as well as precept, was that the true method of education is to develop the child, not to train him as one trains a dog.



The pupil must be regarded as more important than the subject and the ‘whole man’ must be developed.

Masterpiece of early economic science 31. PETTY, Sir William. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. London, Obadiah

Blagrave, at the Sign of the Bear in St Paul’s Corth-Door, 1679 Quarto, calf, red morocco label gilt, 20 x 15cm, pp.(16) + 72, an excellent, fresh copy with wide margins, leaf edges of lower margins entirely uncut. £3,950 Keynes, no.10. Wing P1940. Kress 1499. Goldsmith 2302. See David McNally:Political Economy & the Rise of Capitalism, 1990 p.35. Third edition of William Petty’s first economic treatise. A reprint of the second edition of 1667 with minor alterations to the title page. It was first printed in 1662. This third edition was published against Petty’s wishes. All editions of this book are now rare. The seminal economic work of William Petty, in which he considers the best tax policies for promoting growth. He proposes use of the tax and spend method, with emphasis on taxing con-sumption and imports rather than income. In his view tax policy should be used to finance public spending by the State while keeping the accounts balanced. ‘Petty is widely acknowledged to be a founder of classical political economy. Marx dubbed him "the father of English political economy" and praised his "audacious genius." Max Beer described Petty as "the pioneer of the English economics of production" and claimed that "he must be regarded as the initiator of classical English economics: he laid the foundations on which his successors—Smith and Ricardo—could erect their structures." In the view of Eric Roll, Petty is "the most important, as well as the earliest, English economist who prepared the way for the classical system," while writers such as Schumpeter, Spiegel, and Meek have praised him as the originator of the concept of economic interdependence through the division of labour and of modern income analysis. In The Origins of Scientific Economics, William Letwin has written of Petty's major economic work, A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions, that "its basic structure must stand as a work of surpassing originality. The quality of its analysis makes it an unmistakable masterpiece of early economic science."’ David McNally



32. RICARDO,David. Autograph letter signed to David Hodgson. London 9 May 1821

Quarto, 20.3 x 25.0 cm, leaf edges gilt, 1 ¼ pages in ink, integral address leaf also signed by

David Ricardo, original red wax seal, unobtrusive paper repair in gutter margin of address

leaf, traces of mounting, otherwise in fine condition, preserved in a cloth slip case.

£9,750

Unpublished. David Hodgson, a Quaker, partner in the

house of Cropper, Benson & Co, merchants at Liverpool,

provided evidence on corn prices to the Agricultural

Committee of 1821. Ricardo writes that the information he

has provided was given to William Huskisson. He writes of

the Political Economy Club that ‘it may be instrumental in

advancing the knowledge of the Science’. The Club had been

founded a few days earlier on April 18th

and its first meeting

held on April 30th

.

See Sraffa, vol IX, p.182 for a letter to Hodgson 30 March 1822

33. RICARDO,David. Autograph letter signed, discussing the problem of small bank

notes issued by country bankers, to Thomas Joplin [?]. London 10 July 1822 Quarto, 18.6 x 22.5cm, leaf edges gilt, 1 page in ink, preserved in a green cloth slip case. £7,500 See Piero Sraffa, Works & Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol.IV, pp.289 Plan for a National Bank. See L.S.Pressnell, Country Banking in the Industrial Revolution. Oxford, Clarendon Press 1956 pp.126 Unpublished. David Ricardo replies to a correspondent who had written to him about the practice of country bankers in relation to small bank notes. Ricardo writes that his correspondent’s suggestions come too late, as the small note bill had been passed by the Commons but that he would pass them on to a member of the Lords who is interested in this subject. Ricardo states that no one is obliged to take notes from country banks if they object to the conditions of issue and that in this case this would lead to them being driven out of circulation and being substituted for coin. From recent research by Professor Christophe Depoortere of the University of Paris he believes this letter was addressed to Thomas Joplin [1790?-1847], an English timber merchant and banker. In Ricardo’s Plan for a National Bank [written in 1823 and published in 1824 after his death] in his 14th regulation he supported the idea that £1 notes should be “issued and shall be given to any one requiring them in exchange for notes of a larger amount, if the person prefer such notes to coin. This regulation to continue in force only for one year, as far as regards London, but to be a permanent one in all the country districts”.



34. RICARDO,David. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. London, John

Murray 1817 Octavo, 22.1 x 14.6 cm, 19th century quarter polished calf and marbled boards, calf edges to boards, spine with five raised bands, red morocco labels lettered gilt, leaf edges untrimmed, pp.viii + 589 + (1p) errata + (14pp) index, numerous pencil underlinings in the text and margins and a few pencil notes, a very large copy. £35,000 Provenance: engraved bookplate Briglands Perthshire home of J.A.Clyde, (1863-1944) advocate. He was Lord President from 1920 until 1935 with the title of Lord Clyde. Printing & the Mind of Man 277. Kress B7029. Goldsmith 21734. Sraffa 5a. First edition of one of the most important works in economics of the 19th century. The fundamental groundwork of the Principles is based on the theory that given free competition in trade, the exchange value of commodities will be determined by the amount of labour expended in production. This thesis was reinforced by Ricardo’s theory of distribution in which he argued that the demand for food determines the margin of cultivation; this margin determines rent; the amount necessary to maintain the labourer determines wages; the difference between the amount produced by a given quantity of labour determines profit. Ricardo was the principle founder of the classical school of economics. His main doctrines were expounded by his disciples James Mill and McCulloch and accepted by John Stuart Mill. David Ricardo’s exact mathematical approach and deductive methods have influenced succeeding generations of economists, especially in the fields of currency and banking.

35. SAXBY,Henry. The British Customs. London, Thomas Baskett 1757 Thick octavo, contemporary calf, rebacked preserving original spine, gilt fillets to covers, xviiipp + 654pp. £850 Kress 5646. Goldsmith 9269 (Adam Smith’s copy). Mizuta, pp.54, 138. First edition of a work thoroughly studied by Adam Smith. It proved an invaluable source of information for a wide range of subjects connected with customs and excise duties, from import duties and ‘drawbacks’ to the lower duties on French goods and wine; duties on grain; exemption from duty on certain raw materials; the habit of imposing duties to suit producers rather than customers; the curious taxes on coal transportation by sea as opposed to land or canal; and the ‘book of rates’ used by customs officers.



36. SFORTUNATI,Giovanni of Siena. Nuovo Lume Libro di Arithmetica. Venice, Nicolo di Aristotile detto Zoppino 1534

Quarto, 21.1x15.0cm, grey boards, 129ff + (1) blank, title printed in red and black within elaborate woodcut border containing figures including Archimedes or Euclid pointing with a protractor in his right hand and cherubs holding tablets with arithmetical calculations, woodcut initial on f.3, printed marginilia throughout including arithmetical calculations and some woodcut diagrams, old damp stain on the lower outer corner of the title and on the last leaf, some light browning, a few contemporary marginal annotations in ink in Italian, a very good copy. £1,950 Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p.174. Adams, Cambridge Libraries S1039 (1 copy). Riccardi I (2), 453. Not in ICA of London Library, ICA of Scotland Library, Herwood Library. Not in Kress or Goldsmith. First edition by the Italian arithmetician Johannes Infortunatus, who was born at Siena in about 1500. Smith, in Rara Arithmetica, writes that “Sfortunati wrote his treatise along the lines followed by Borghi and Feliciano, and in his preface he acknowledges his indebtedness to them and to ‘Maestro Luca dal Borgo dell’ ordine di fanto Francesco’ and to the ‘operetta di Filippo Caladri Cittadino Fiorentino’. Like these authors, he was a popular writer, as the seven editions of his book go to prove. His work is fairly complete as to the operations with integers and fractions, and is satisfactory as to the examples illustrating the Italian business life of the 16th century. The treatise closes with some work in practical mensuration and some mercantile tables”.

37. SIMSON, Robert. Opera Quaedam Reliqua. Glasgow, Robert and Andrew Foulis 1776 Quarto, contemporary red goatskin, the covers with a gilt border of a chain roll and a repeated rococo floral tool, smooth spine panelled in gilt, lettered on a green goatskin label, elaborately gilt tooled, marbled endleaves, leaf edges gilt, (4) leaves + xpp + 594pp + (1)leaf + 32pp + (1)leaf + 33pp + (1)leaf + 23pp, bookplate of John Crerar Library on front paste down, small discreet perforated cypher on title and deaccession stamp on verso of title, a very good copy in a most attractive contemporary binding, possibly from the Foulis bindery. £2,000 Gaskell,The Foulis Press, no.600. Bonar, Catalogue of the Library of Adam Smith, p.167. Kress B2619. Not in Goldsmith. Vanderblue, p.40 First edition of this posthumous edition of the unpublished works of Robert Simson (1687-1768), Professor of Mathematics at Glasgow University. Professor James Clow, the successor of Adam Smith in the Chair of Logic at Glasgow, writes the forward to this book; having been chosen, quite possibly on the recommendation of Adam Smith, to edit these highly important works of Simson. The book was printed at the cost of Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Stanhope (1714-1786) of Chevening, Kent, the mathematician, who was a friend of both Simson and Adam Smith, and was in correspondence with Adam Smith at the time the editor was being chosen. Adam Smith had a copy of this book in his Library.



“the secret of his genius is to be found in that part of his life before he became celebrated”

38. SMITH,ADAM. Autograph letter to the 1st Earl of Shelburne. Glasgow 15

th July

1760

Quarto, 2 leaves, 6 pages, 129 lines, endorsed in ink by Lord Shelburne, preserved in a green

cloth, morocco backed box.

£67,500

Mossner, Correspondence of Adam Smith, no.51.

In 1751 Adam Smith was appointed Professor of Logic at Glasgow College (University of

Glasgow) and in 1752 became Professor of Moral Philosophy. He was to remain there until

he resigned in February 1764 to become tutor to the Duke of Buccleuch. Although Glasgow

College was relatively remote, it was becoming one of the great educational institutions in

these islands. There were only 300 students in Adam Smith’s day. The great majority of the

students were apparently young men preparing for the Presbyterian ministry. Adam Smith’s

moral philosophy chair never had more than 90 students in the public or 20 in the private

class.

At Glasgow he taught logic, jurisprudence and politics. He was a member of the Glasgow

Literary Society. In 1755 he lectured to the Cochrane Club on economics. In 1758 he became

Quaestor for the University Library and in 1760 was appointed Dean of Arts. In 1761 he

became Vice-Rector. He published two articles in the Edinburgh Review in 1755, in 1759 his

first book The Theory of Moral Sentiments and in 1761 Considerations concerning the First

Formation of Languages in The Phililogical Miscellany.

Scott in Adam Smith as Student and Professor writes of this time “the secret of his genius is

to be found in that part of his life before he became celebrated”.

Adam Smith lived rent free in a house in Professors’ Court at the College, with his mother

and his cousin, Janet Douglas. It was the custom for professors to take students into their

houses. The names of the students who boarded with and were supervised by Adam Smith

have been lost, other than Henry Herbert (later Lord Porchester) and Thomas Petty-

Fitzmaurice.

Adam Smith’s pupil Thomas Petty-Fitzmaurice (1742-1793), son of Lord Shelburne, had

earlier been educated at Eton. After Glasgow he went to St Mary’s Hall, Oxford in 1761, was

called to the English Bar in 1768 and became a Member of Parliament in 1762. In 1779 he set

up as a linen merchant and established a bleaching factory at Llewenny in Wales, as his Irish

estates were unproductive. He was reported to have lived on “the most intimate terms with

Johnson, Hawkesworth and Garrick”.

In this six page letter to Lord Shelburne Adam Smith writes of his own illness since March

and its recurrence from sleeping in a damp bed. Dr Cullen had advised him to ride five

hundred miles before September as a means of recovery. He therefore proposed to go to

Yorkshire then the West of England. He also encloses receipts for expenditure and asks Lord

Shelburne for payment of the money he is owed for books and clothes for his pupil Thomas.

I came home yesterday to settle my affairs which, so well as I can judge, will take me up near

a fortnight. If I was in health, it would not take up two days, but a present I can give so little

continued application that I have already been obliged to interrupt this letter twice in order

to let the profuse sweat, which the labour of writing three lines had thrown me into, go off. I

am besides obliged to employ a great deal of time in Riding. I propose going the length of

York & returning by the West of England as soon as my affairs will allow me...

Adam Smith describes Thomas’s academic progress and character. His pupil reads the best

English authors, as well as Montesquieu’s Esprit de Loix. In the evening he goes dancing and



soldier’s exercises. His pupil’s inclination is towards mathematical and mechanical learning,

and that he has less time for polite literature. Thomas has a certain hardness of character, that

from Eton he learned a sort of flippant smartness which has now left him entirely and that his

character is very grave and serious.

The real bottom of his character is very grave & very serious, & by the time he is five &

twenty, whatever faults he has will be the faults of the grave & serious character, with all its

faults the best of Characters. I heard sometime in April last that his companions accused him

of narrowness. I told him of it immediately, & he soon explained to me what had given

occasion to the accusation. I have ever since been more liberal to him & soon after gave him

first six & then four Pounds to spend during the time of the Assizes. This has raised a good

deal the articles for pocket. As I am thoroughly convinced tht there is now no chance of his

ever being spendthrift, I do not think that it could have any good affect to pinch him at

present & it might have a very bad one. Take him altogether he is one of the best young men I

have known...



39. SMITH,Adam. The Works of Adam Smith, LL.D....With an account of his life and

writings by Dugald Stewart. In Five Volumes. London, T.Cadell and W.Davies 1811-1812 5 volumes, octavo, contemporary calf, contemporary labels lettered in gilt, edges rubbed, covers scuffed, ruled in gilt, spines richly gilt, pp.xv +611; viii + (1) + 499; vi + 523; v + (1) + 515; iv + 584, engraved frontispiece portrait of Adam Smith to volume I from the Tassie medallion drawn by J.Jackson and end engraved by S.Picart, contemporary engraved armorial bookplate of William Barlee and bookplate of David Oliver, an attractive set. £3,750 Kress B5917. Goldsmith 20438. Vanderblue p.45. First edition of the first printing of The Works of Adam Smith. Volume I contains The Theory of Moral Sentiments from the sixth edition; volume II, III, IV The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations from the fourth edition; volume V Considerations concerning the Formation of Languages; Essays on Philosophical Subjects; Account of the Life and Writings of Dr Smith taken from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1793. The Appendix pp.553-584 contains Adam Smith’s two contributions in 1755 to the journal The Edinburgh Review which was a review of Johnson’s Dictionary and A Letter to the Author’s of the Edinburgh Review.

“The manifold sins and iniquities you have been guilty of in printing my book” 40. SMITH,Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. The Second Edition. London,

A.Millar 1761 Octavo, contemporary calf, rebacked, five raised bands, (1) blank + (5) + 436pp, scattered foxing, damp stain to lower margin of a few leaves, faint contemporary ownership in ink on the title. £3750 Provenance. Faint contemporary ownership in ink on the title that can be identified as ‘.... Oswald’ which at some time, probably in the 19th century, an attempt was made to erase. Kress 5983. Not in Goldsmith or BL. Mossner, The Correspondence of Adam Smith, pp.73-74. Mossner, Adam Smith, The Biographical Approach, pp.13-15. Ross, Life of Adam Smith, pp.182-186. The rare second edition of Adam Smith’s first published work [first edition 1759]. Adam Smith devoted the years 1755 to 1759 mainly to writing and publishing The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He had been appointed Professor of Logic at Glasgow in 1751 and elected Professor of Moral Philosophy a year later. It was this period at Glasgow College which Adam Smith was later to describe as “the period of thirteen years which I spent as a member of that society I remember as by far the most useful, and, therefore, as by far the happiest and most honourable period of my life”. It has been said that if the Wealth of Nations had never been written, this work would have earned him a prominent place in intellectual history. Sensitive, original, erudite, eloquent – it reveals the full stature of Adam Smith’s genius and insight into his tastes and personality. The book immediately established a reputation for him in learned circles well beyond the bounds of his own university. It secured for him an international reputation as a philosopher. On 30th December 1760 Adam Smith wrote to his printer in London William Strahan listing six errors in this second edition that must be corrected as totally disfiguring the sense and a further twenty-five errors of less consequence. The



opposite leaf will set before your eyes the manifold sins and iniquities you have been guilty of in printing my book. As far as is known no errata was issued with this second edition and the errors remain. The first six were corrected in the third edition of 1767, and a further fifteen up to the sixth edition of 1790, and the remainder never corrected. Mossner discusses Adam Smith’s letter to Strahan describing this as “the mystery concerning the second edition”.

41. SMITH,Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Dublin, Whitestone Chamberlaine 1776

3 volumes, octavo, contemporary continental pale calf, red and green morocco labels lettered gilt, spines with five raised bands richly gilt in compartments with fleurs de lys, skilful repair to the head of spines, hinges worn, pp.(8) + 391pp; (8) + 524pp + (3) adverts; (4) + 412pp, contemporary ownership in ink on title of volume III J.Kallenborn, an attractive copy. £8,500 Goldsmith 11393. Vanderblue, p.20. Not in Kress. Not in Bradshaw Collection of Irish Books in the University Library Cambridge. First Dublin edition published in the same year as the first edition. This copy has three pages of publishers advertisements entitled New Books bound at the end of volume II. The history of economic theory up to the end of the nineteenth century consists of two parts: the mercantilist phase which was based not so much on a doctrine as on a system of practice which grew out of social conditions; and the second phase which saw the development of the theory that the individual had the right to be unimpeded in the exercise of economic activity. While it cannot be said that Smith invented the latter theory – the physiocrats had already suggested it and Turgot in particular had constructed an organised study of social wealth – his work is the first major expression of it. He begins with the thought that labour is the source from which a nation derives what is necessary to it. The improvement of the division of labour is the measure of productivity and in it lies the human propensity to barter and exchange: “labour is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities … it is their real price; money is their nominal price only”. Labour represents the three essential elements – wages, profit, and rent – and these three also constitute income. From the working of the economy, Smith passes to its matter – “stock” – which compasses all that man owns either for his own consumption or for the return which it brings him. The Wealth of Nations ends with a history of economic development, a definite onslaught on the mercantile system, and some prophetic speculations on the limits of economic control. ‘Where the political aspects of human rights had taken two centuries to explore, Smith’s achievement was to bring the study of economic aspects to the same point in a single work … The certainty of its criticism and its grasp of human nature have made it the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought’ (PMM).



42. [SMITH,Adam] MICKLE, William Julius. The Lusiad; or, the Discovery of India. An Epic Poem. Translated from the Original Portugese of Luis de Camöens. The Second Edition. Oxford, Jackson and Lister 1778

Quarto, contemporary tree calf, edges worn, rebacked, red morocco label, (2) + ccxxxvipp + 496pp, including the dedication to the Duke of Buccleuch, engraved frontispiece, folding engraved map. £1,250 Goldsmith 11720. Viner, Guide to John Rae’s Life of Adam Smith pp.70-74. Not in Kress or Vanderblue. Second edition, but the first to contain this critical attack on Adam Smith’s laissez-faire doctrines to the East India Trade in the Wealth of Nations. The long criticism appears on pages clxi-clxxxvi and begins; “Of the example of Portugese Asia cannot be better enforced by an examination of the popular arguments relative to the British commerce with India. A recent Writer on the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, has stood forth as the philosophical champion for the abolition of the Monopoly of the English United East India Company…” Mickle, a Scottish poet and translator of Camöens epic verse, dedicated The Lusiad to Adam Smith’s pupil the Duke of Buccleuch, who apparently said that it had not the merit it had been presented to him as having. Viner writes “Mickle’s criticism of Adam Smith’s economics was not limited to Smith’s specific applications of his general laissez-faire and free competition doctrines to the East India Company issue, but included a frontal attack on these doctrines themselves…It was not Smith’s custom publicly to acknowledge, still less, formally to reply to, or to make explicit concessions to, adverse criticism of himself or his writings, and he seems never publicly to have referred to Mickle. Although in the third edition (1784) of The Wealth of Nations he introduced new material on the East India Company and its history which was on the whole even more critical than his original attack on the Company…”

43. SMITH,Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The Third Edition, with Additions. In Three Volumes. London, W.Strahan 1784

3 volumes, octavo, original blue boards, original paper spines worn, inscribed in ink on spines Wealth of Nations with volume numbers in ink, leaf edges entirely uncut, pp.viii + 499; pp.vi + 518 + (5) appendix; pp.v + 465 + (50) index and final advert leaf for The Theory of Moral Sentiments fourth edition, stain on upper board of volume I, small paper repair to leaf Bb8 in volume I and skilful restoration to loss of a few letters in ink, and paper loss to part of initial blank leaf, ownership in ink on inner blank of first title Huboofton, and in ink on first inner blank leaf The gift of C H Easbery to HuC March 1803, an excellent copy and a remarkable survival in the original boards. £4750 Kress B789. Goldsmith 12554. Vanderblue p.3. Rothschild Library, 1901. PMM 221 [1st edition of 1776]. The important third edition in the original boards uncut of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations containing a number of additions. In the advertisement Adam Smith writes To the Third Edition…I have made several additions, particularly to the chapter upon Drawbacks, and to that upon Bounties; likewise a new chapter entitled The Conclusion of the mercantile System; and a new article to the chapter upon the expences of the sovereign….



44. SMITH,Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. In Three Volumes. The Fourth Edition. London, A.Strahan and T.Cadell 1786

3 volumes, octavo, contemporary half calf and marbled boards, contemporary red morocco labels lettered gilt with volume numbers in gilt, head and tails worn, leaf edges entirely uncut, pp.viii + 499 + (1) errata; vi + 518 + (5) appendix + (1) errata; v + (1) errata + 465 + (1) blank + (50) index, in vol.III title page and index leaves unopened, engraved armorial bookplate in all volumes of Talbot of Gonville’s Hall in Wymondham Co.Norfolk MDLXXXIV, in volumes II and III in ink on initial blank B.C.Hingham June 87, contemporary binders note in ink on front blank endpaper of volume I 3 V. 0.18.0 in hf bind., and at the foot of the final blank leaf Joh.Slapp Cher., a charming copy. £3,850 PMM 221 (1st edition). Goldsmith 13148. Kress B1129. Vanderblue, p.3. See Mossner, Correspondence of Adam Smith, 1987, letter no.256 to Andrew Strahan Fourth edition published on November 6th 1786. There are a few trifling alterations from the 3rd edition.. In the ‘Advertisement’ leaf in volume I to this edition Adam Smith writes ‘In this fourth edition I have made no alterations of any kind. I now, however, find myself at liberty to acknowledge my very great obligations to Henry Hop of Amsterdam. To that Gentleman I owe the most distinct, as well as liberal information, concerning a very interesting and important subject, the Bank of Amsterdam; of which no printed account had ever appeared to me satisfactory, or even intelligible...’ Adam Smith wrote to his publisher Andrew Strahan in February 1786 ‘I beg you will employ one of your best compositors in printing the new edition of my book. I must, likewise beg that a compleat copy be sent to me before it is published, that I may revise and correct it. You may depend upon my not detaining you above a week...’

First printing in Scotland and first with a portrait 45. SMITH,Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

New Edition in Four Volumes. Embellished with an Elegant Head of the Author. Embellished with an Elegant Head of the Author. Glasgow, R.Chapman 1805

4 volumes, twelvemo, original pale blue boards, uncut, original printed paper labels, engraved frontispiece portrait of Adam Smith from the Tassie Medallion, pp.viii, 304; iv, 286; iv, 284, (4); iv, 280, skilful repair to hinges of volume I, heads of spines chipped, a little browned throughout, unopened on some gatherings, a good copy surviving in its original publishers binding. £1,350 Vanberblue, p.13 First Glasgow edition, taken from the fourth edition of 1786, and the first printing of the Wealth in Scotland and the first to contain a portrait of the author.



An interleaved copy 46. SMITH,Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

With an Introductory Essay and Notes by Joseph Shield Nicholson,M.A. London, T.Nelson and Sons 1884

One volume bound in 2 volumes, octavo, contemporary quarter calf and marbled boards, calf edges, maroon morocco labels lettered gilt, five raised bands, leaf edges uncut, interleaved throughout, pp.vi, 3-32, 242; 243-445, pencil notes throughout the first volume, a fine copy. £375 Provenance: engraved bookplate Briglands, Perthshire home of J.A.Clyde, (1863-1944) advocate. He was Lord President from 1920 until 1935 with the title of Lord Clyde. First edition edited by Shield Nicholson who was Professor of Political Economy at Edinburgh University.

47. SMITH,Adam. Recherches sur la Nature et les Causes de la Richesse des Nations,

Traduites de l’Anglois d’Adam Smith: par J.A.Roucher. Deuxième Ėdition, Revue et considéradement corrigée. Tome Premier...Cinquiéme. Paris, Chez Buisson...An 3e. De la République [1794]

5 volumes, octavo, contemporary sheep, scuffed and worn, spines lettered gilt, pp.(6) + vi +

438; (4) + 494; (4) + 624; (4) + 412; (4) + 376, with the half titles in all volumes, worm in

blank margin of last leaves of volume IV, some light spotting.

£650

Kress B2409. Goldsmith 15089. Vanderblue p.25.

The second edition revised of Roucher’s translation, first published in 1791-1792.

48. SMITH,Adam. Recherches sur la Nature et les Causes de la Richesse des Nations,

Traduites de l’Anglois d’Adam Smith: par le Citoyen Blavet. Paris. Imprimerie de Laran, An.9, 1800-1801

4 volumes, octavo, contemporary quarter calf and blue marbled boards, a little scuffed, spines

lettered gilt, pp. Xxvii + 500; (4) + 521; (4) + 460; (4) + 436; with the four half titles, first

two leaves of volume I foxed, otherwise a good copy.

£450

Kress B4271. Goldsmith 17863. Vanderblue p.25.

£450

The third edition revised of Roucher’s translation, first published in 1791-1792.

The first biography of Adam Smith 49. SMITH,Adam. Essays on Philosophical Subjects. To which is prefixed An Account

of the Life and Writings of the Author; by Dugald Stewart, F.R.S.E.London, T.Cadell Jun and W.Davies 1795

Thick quarto, 26.4 x 21.0 cm , contemporary sheep, scuffed, spine rebacked gilt with five raised bands, red morocco labels lettered gilt, marbled endpapers, xcvpp + 244pp, off-setting in upper blank of title from a piece of paper.

bound after STEWART,Dugald. Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. [Vol I] London, A.Strahan and T.Cadell, Edinburgh:W.Creech 1792



Thick quarto, 26.4 x 21.0 cm, pp.xii + 566 + (1) errata, with the half title. £5950 [Smith;. Kress B3038. Goldsmith 16218. Rothschild Library, 1902. Vanderblue, p.43. Jessop, p.172. [Stewart]: Jessop, p.177 A contemporary volume containing the first edition of Adam Smith’s Essays on Philosophical Subjects 1795 with his biographer Dugald Stewart’s Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind 1792 First editions. Adam Smith was supported in his declining years by two old friends in particular: the distinguished scientists Joseph Black and James Hutton. It was they who superintended, at Smith’s request, the destruction of all his papers except the few he judged to be in a sufficiently finished state to deserve publication. Black and Hutton were his literary executors, and published the literary fragments which had been spared the flames under their editorship as Essays on Philosophical Subjects in 1795. The essays include “The History of Astronomy”, “The External Senses” and “On the affinity between Music, Dancing and Poetry” and prefixed at the beginning Dugald Stewart’s An Account of the life and Writing of the Author which is the first biography of Adam Smith. Dugald Stewart [1753-1828], pupil of Adam Ferguson, in 1775 elected professor of mathematics in Edinburgh, and in 1785 appointed professor of moral philosophy. His major work was Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. It first appeared in 1792 and two further parts were published over a period of 35 years, the second part in 1814 and the third in 1827. Stewart had known Adam Smith and was to write the first biography.

50. [SMITH,Adam] BAERT,Joannes Franciscus Benjamin. Adam Smith en zijn orderzoer zaar des Rijkdom der Volken. Leiden, Gebroeders van der Hoek 1858

Octavo, printed publishers brown cloth boards, upper hinge worn, pp.(10) + 279, discreet cancel library stamp to verso of title. £200 Vanderblue,p.53 First edition of this Dutch critical study of the works of Adam Smith. Uncommon dissertation on Smith's Wealth of Nations, presented to the legal faculty of the University of Leiden by J.F.B. Baert (1833-1909). Baert divides his work into three parts. The first presents a biography of Smith, examining the influences on his philosophical and economic thought, while the second examines Smith's work in detail, discussing the various editions of the Wealth, and its opponents from the time of publication through to the mid nineteenth century (including Pownall, Louis Say, and Sismondi), before examining the style and form of the Wealth, and discussing the original elements in Smith's thought. The third section discusses some of the principal elements of the Wealth, examining Smith's treatment of riches and value, ground rent, and population, among other subjects.



The Governor of Madras’s copy of the first important English work on political economy

51. STEUART, Sir James . An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy. London, A.Millar and T.Cadell 1767

2 volumes, quarto, contemporary calf, a little rubbed and scuffed, spines with five raised bands ruled in gilt, red morocco labels lettered gilt and oval green morocco labels numbered gilt, top of spines worn, hinges with short splits but firm and holding, xvpp + (1p) errata + (6) + 639pp; (8) + 646pp + (6) + (1) errata, 2 folding tables, engraved armorial bookplate of Thomas Munro, an excellent copy preserved in a cloth box. £12,500 Provenance: Sir Thomas Munro (1761-1827) Colonial administrator in India and Governor of Madras. Son of the Glasgow merchant trading with Virginia Alexander Munro. Educated at Glasgow grammar school and Glasgow University studied mathematics under Professor Williamson, and chemistry with the celebrated Dr Irvine and also studied political economy. After service in the infantry in India he held various posts in colonial administration in India. Appointed in charge of Canara; and then for another seven year (1800-1807) he was placed in charge of the northern district "ceded" by the Nizam of Hyderabad, where he introduced the ryotwari system of land revenue; served as brigadier-general during the third Maratha War (1817–18); 1819-1827 Governor of Madras. His Papers are in the John Rylands University Library. Kress 6498. Goldsmith 10276. Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, pp.241-242. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, p.176. Palgrave, III, pp.475-476. Gleig, Life of Munro, 1830. First edition. The first important English work on political economy. James Steuart (1712-1780) is represented as someone who produced a systematic treatment of economics, but in pre-Physiocratic form. Although his book was first published in 1767, the main elements of the argument were established in isolation in Germany in the late 1750’s. David Hume is reported as being critical of the ‘form and style’ of the work but ‘exceedingly pleased’ with it as an ‘ingenious performance’ when he looked it over in manuscript in 1766. Whilst Steuart’s interventionist economic principles provoked Adam Smith to refute them in The Wealth of Nations, recent commentary has emphasized the continuity in Scottish economic thought from David Hume to James Steuart to Adam Smith. He gradually enjoyed some attention from the members of the German Historical School in the 19th Century. More recently he has been hailed as a forerunner of the ‘economics of control’ and the concept of development planning. Steuart also wrote an important but rarely found work on Indian currency The Principles of Money applied to the present state of the coin of Bengal 1772.

52. STEUART,SIR James. An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy. Dublin, James Williams and Richard Moncrieffe 1770

Three volumes, octavo, contemporary pale Irish calf, contemporary dark red labels lettered and numbered gilt, slight wear to head and tails of volume II, pp. (4) + (8) + iii-xii + (6) + 426 + (2)adverts; (32) + 424; (8) + 431 + folding table of coins + (20), a fine and attractive copy. £,3,250 Kress 6760. Goldsmith 10611. Higgs 4854. Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, pp.241-242. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, p.176.



First Dublin edition. The first important English work on political economy. This three volume Irish printing is rarely seen for sale.

53. THORNTON,Henry. An Enquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain. London, J.Hatchard 1802

Octavo, boards, xiipp + 320pp £1,150 Kress B4612. Goldsmith 18526. Stephens, p.32. Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, p.242. First edition of the greatest work of the 19th century on monetary theory. Stephens writes that “It gives a comprehensive account of the workings of the money market at the date of its publication, and of the attitude in which the Bank of England stood towards the rest of the commercial world. As Bank Director, the author was peculiarly qualified to explain the inner mechanisms of the financial system. He insists that over-issue would depreciate the value of notes, but does not consider that the bank issue of the Bank of England is excessive”.

54. TUNSTALL,Cuthbert. De Arte Supputandi libri quatuor. Paris, Roberti Stephani 1538 Quarto, antique style calf, 20.4 x 14.5 cm, 259pp, insignificant browning to a few leaves, early ownership inscription in ink at the top of p.5 of Caroli Seueroli, a fine large copy. £1,800 Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p.135. When first published in London in 1522 it was the first book wholly on arithmetic printed in England. It was reprinted in Paris in 1529, 1535, 1538 (here described) and a further four printings in Strasbourg between 1543 and 1551. Cuthbert Tunstall (1474-1559) was educated at Oxford, Cambridge and Padua. He was bishop of London and later Durham. The book is dedicated to his friend Thomas More, of whom More described in 1516 in the opening lines of his Utopia “I was colleague and companion to that incomparable man Cuthbert Tonstal, whom the king with such universal applause lately made Master of the Rolls..” Tunstall wrote this book as a practical handbook. It was based on Italian models and it is apparent that he must have known the leading Italian writers of the time from his stay in Padua. Smith writes that “the book includes many business applications of the day, such as partnership, profit and loss and exchange. It includes the rule of false, the rule of three and numerous applications of these and other rules”.



One of the great rarities of economic literature

55. WHEELER, John. A Treatise of Commerce, Wherin are shewed the

commodies arising by a wel ordered, and ruled trade, Such as that of

the Societie of Merchants Adventurers is proved to bee, written

principallie for the better information of those who doubt of the

Necessarienes of the said Societie in the State of the Realme of

Englande. Middleburgh, Richard Schilders, Printer to the States of

Zeland 1601

Quarto, 17th

century panelled calf, rebacked, (4) + 178pp, without the errata,

title within typographical woodcut border with printers device, woodcut initials,

author’s presentation inscription in ink on the initial blank signed and dated

Middelbroughe 28 Decembris 160(1)

£37,500

Provenance: 1.Sir Leonard Halliday [d.1612] merchant adventurer, Mayor of London, 10 line

presentation inscription from the author. 2. Book plate of Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax

[1661-1715], first Chancellor of the Exchequer, and father of the Bank of England.

Very rare STC 25330. Kress 243 Appleby, Economic Thought & Ideology in 17th

Century

England, pp.94,105-106, 116. Hecksher, Mercantilism I, pp,270, 423, 428-429; II, pp.62, 95,

100, 131. Schumpeter, pp.306, 339-340. Palgrave III,p.665.

First edition, with remarkable 10 line author’s presentation inscription

To the right worshipfull, grave and

prudent Senator, and one of the Fathers

of the farre renomnpned [i.e. renowned] Fellowshippe

of Merchant Adventurers of England Mr

Leonard Hallidaie Esquire and Alderman

of the Cittye of Londone[,] John Wheeler

once and still his servant sendeth this

his simple woork with heartye wishes of

all happiness and longe lyfe to hym and hys.

Middelbroughe 28 Decembris anno 160[1]

J Wheeler:

Wheeler was Secretary of the Society of Merchant Adventurers of England – the strongest of

the ‘regulated’ trading companies. First published as a defence of the Society at Middleburgh

in 1601 and reissued in the same year in London. Hotchkiss describes this book “as the

earliest important example of corporation publicity…a piece of commercial propaganda…an

important milestone in the development of marketing…It represents the characteristically

medieval theory of the trade monopoly, bolstered by monarchical authority and jealously

guarded against competition”. Written to show the superiority of the Merchant Adventurers

over unorganised traders, Wheeler argued that competition among merchants was minimized,

that the large fleets employed by such a company secured commerce, increased exports,

cheapened imports, raised the customs revenue, and benefited the nation in time of war. The

book contains a detailed account of alliances with the Low Countries, trade with Antwerp and

survey of trade between England and the Hanse towns, with a refutation of the charge against

the Merchant Adventurers of being monopolists.



56. WILBERFORCE,William. Autograph letter signed to R. H.Marten. Highwood Hill, Middy 4th June 1828

Octavo, 7.6 x 11.2 cm, 4 pages in ink, leaf edges gilt, fold marks, excellent condition. £1,100 Location of many of William Wilberforce letters and papers: Bodleian Library, Oxford; Duke University; St John’s College, Cambridge Fine unpublished autograph letter from the philanthropist and politician William Wilberforce. In 1825 Wilberforce retired from the House of Commons and in June 1826 moved to a new home Highwood Hill, (from which this letter was written) just north of London with 140 acres of land and cottages. He was plagued by eyesight problems which he mentions in this letter.

Uncut in the original sheets 57. WILBERFORCE,William. A Letter on the Abolition of the

Slave Trade; Addressed to the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of Yorkshire. London, Luke Hansard & Sons for T.Cadell and W.Davies and J.Hatchard, 1807

Octavo, 23.0 x 15.0 cm, uncut in the original sheets, stab holes, pp.(2) +396 + (4), stain to inner margin of first two leaves, printing flaw on page 276 affecting part of the text on 11 lines, publishers adverts dated December 1806, advert leaves browned, an excellent copy, a remarkable survival in the original sheets, uncut and never bound, preserved in a green cloth box. £5,850 Printing & the Mind of Man, 232b. Sabin 103953. First edition of William Wilberforce’s book of 80,000 words which he completed on the evening of 27th January 1807 and published four days later. It summed up his arguments against the slave trade which he had presented over the previous twenty years. Copies were rushed to the House of Lords as soon as it came off the presses to coincide with the debate and 2nd reading of the Abolition Act that was to take place in the first week of February 1807. The Lords carried the Abolition Bill by 100 votes to 34, and the triumph was repeated in the House of Commons on 23rd February – 283 votes to 16.

The first biography of the economist John Law 58. WOOD,John Philip]. A Sketch of the Life and Projects of

John Law of Lauriston,comptroller General of the finances in France. Edinburgh, Peter Hill and George Kearsley 1791

Quarto, 29.0 x 23.0 cm, original blue paper wrappers, uncut, pp.(4) + ii + 48, paper wrappers with short tear, an excellent copy, preserved in a marbled portfolio with ties. £4,250 ESTC T8458. Kress B2240. Goldsmith 14941. Rare first edition of the earliest published biography in English of the Scottish economist John Law. The dedication is to William Davidson of Muirhead.



The son of a prosperous banker John Law [1671-1729] devoted his entire life to making proposals for the establishment of banks, both in Scotland and on the Continent, convinced as he was that the key to economic prosperity lay in augmenting the base of metallic currencies with paper money, particularly paper money backed by land holdings. He was appointed Controller General of Finances in France by the regent Philippe d’Orleans in 1716 and the became the architect of the Mississippi Bubble. Law was dismissed from his post in 1720. His principal theories on money and banking, giving a detailed account of his plan to replace specie with paper currency based on land and of his proposals for a state bank were published in his Money and trade considered, published anonymously in Edinburgh in 1705. Law is described by Schumpeter as “in the front rank of monetary theorists of all times”. Antoin Murphy writes “Money and trade in particular is a seminal work….In it Law discussed not only the money/inflation issue, but, more significantly, the money/output issue. He was contending that money was linked, not just to the price level, but also to output – or trade, as it was then called. Law wanted to show that an expansion of money supply could increase output and employment in an economy characterised by unemployment and under-utilisation of resources. At the same time, he produced a highly innovative approach to macroeconomic theorizing…” The author of this biography John Wood was to publish in 1794 an account of John Law’s ancestral village entitled The Ancient and Modern State of the Parish of Cramond.

NEW PUBLICATION

59. RILEY-SMITH,Hamish. John Stuart Mill’s Lost Library. 2012 Octavo, colour printed paper covers, pp.59 with illustrations. The author’s search for books from Mill’s Library that were sold over 30 years after his death in Avignon in May 1905 and the dispersal of his manuscripts in London in 1922. Includes an account of how Mill came to have a farmhouse in Avignon, his life there, a list of books that could have been in his Library and a note on his Library bequeathed to Somerville College, Oxford. £25 post free



COLLECTION

60. JOHN STUART MILL AND HIS FATHER JAMES MILL. A rare book collection

237 items [1805-1900] including autograph letters, first editions, contemporary translations, contemporary antagonists and critics. Detailed catalogue on request.

Documents

Proposals for a Land Bank Money creation and debt ...€¦ · Coin clipping by the end of the 17th century, clipped because in ordinary times the coins could still circulate as full-weight